Asset management firm marks up Ola's by 12%

BENGALURU:Vanguard, one of the world's largest asset management company, has marked up the valuation of two poster boys of Indian startup ecosystem - online retailer Flipkart and cab-hailing app Ola - according to filings made by one of the funds managed by the firm.While Vanguard World Fund has marked up Flipkart's valuation by up to 64%, Ola's was marginally moved up by 12%.

The move to markup the share prices comes after both their valuations fell by 30-40% and successive markdowns faced by the two companies in 2016, when raising additional capital for both of them was tough.

Since the start of the year, both Flipkart and Ola have seen increasing investor interest as they have been able to defend market share against US rivals Amazon and Uber, respectively.

According to filings made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Vanguard World Fund has raised the value of Flipkart's series-G shares by 57% to $107.78 for the quarter ending May as compared to $68.73 per share during the previous quarter.

Flipkart's series-H shares have been marked up 64% from $77.71 to $128.01 during the same period.

Both these markups push Flipkart's worth higher than the one during its latest $1.4-billion round led by China's internet conglomerate Tencent, software maker Microsoft and American marketplace eBay.

The round was done at a price of around $88 per share, valuing Flipkart at about $11.6 billion. This was a downround for Flipkart as compared to its previous round in July 2015 when it was valued at $15.2 billion.

In November 2016, a Morgan Stanley mutual fund had marked Flipkart to as low as $52.13 per share pegging its valuation at $5.6 billon.

At the same time, Ola's valuation was moved up by 12% from $187.47 to $209.56 by the fund. In November last year, Ola decided to raise capital from SoftBank at a lower valuation of $3 billion -down from $4.5-5 billion in 2015.

The fundraising was the first downround -a term used to define fundraising at a lower valuation -for an Indian internet company valued over $1 billion in the current cycle.

“Ola Cabs fell in value after raising additional capital from SoftBank. While Ola has a market-leading position in India, it faces competition from Uber; for long-term growth, the company needs the resources of an investor like SoftBank,“ said Vanguard World Fund's filing in February.